During a computer system startup, or wake-up, the computer system is self-tested and initialized through loading and execution of system firmware. Under personal computer (PC) architectures, this firmware is commonly referred to as the system's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). In a typical PC architecture, the BIOS is generally defined as the firmware that runs between the processor reset and the first instruction of the Operating System (OS) loader. This is commonly referred to as the pre-boot phase and precedes the OS boot phase. At the start of a pre-boot, very little of the system beyond the processor and firmware is actually initialized. It is up to the code in the firmware to initialize the system to the point that an operating system can take over.
Customer research shows that users frequently request fast system startup for their personal computers (PCs), whether from cold boot, or when resuming from standby or hibernation modes. Typical goals for the Microsoft® Windows™ XP operating system are: 1) boot to a useable state in a total of 30 seconds; 2) resume from Hibernate (S4) in a total of 20 seconds; and 3) resume from Standby (S3) in a total of 5 seconds. Boot and resume times are measured from the time the power switch is pressed to a user being able to start a program from a desktop shortcut, for instance, a word processor like Microsoft® Word®. Further information on the topic of fast boot goals can be found on web pages provided by Microsoft® Corporation, currently found at the web location: http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/fastboot-winxp.asp.
Testing shows that CPU (central processing unit) performance has little effect in reducing boot time, including driver loading, although a faster CPU does help in the WinLogon (log-on to the Windows™ OS) phase of boot-up. Therefore, Moore's Law will not fix this problem. Moore's Law, a commonly used industry predictor, named for Intel Corporation co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles approximately every two years. In other words, steadily increasing processing power of the CPU processing chips will not solve this problem.